Blogs from Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 6

It seems it has become a habit for us to write a blog every week. Hopefully we will pull ourselves together and be as persisten as we were the first few weeks. Not that has happened since our last entry though. Our third day in Brunei was very relaxed. Breakfast was finished at 1 o'clock and we spent some time with the computers. At three we finally went to see the famous Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Mosque. Our expectations were way too high, partly because of the overly positive review in our guide book. Just like our luck with historic buildings this one was also under renovation. Big scaffolds covered the entire dome. The inside felt quite a bit superficial, partly because of the puny escalator leading up to God knows where. We then went to a ... read more

Hi all, My travel plans fell through last night when the guy offered me a lift couldn't go. Instead he booked me on a transfer today with another traveler - the trouble is it was at 6 am! I got to Tawau at 7:30 and need to kill time until at least 3 before heading to the airport and so i'm on the internet for the day (there really is nothing to do in this town and I have my bags with me. I had an interesting breakfast this morning, after wondering about lost for 1/2 hour I found somewhere with people eating and so went it. Only to find none of the staff had any idea what I was trying to say to them when asking what breakfast they do. Luckily there were a few ... read more

Hi all, I'm currently in Semporna, which is a small town in Sabah in Borneo people visit to dive off Sipadan - which is widely considered one of the best, if not the best dive site in the world. I came out here to do a PADI (the worldwide recognised diving certification) Open Water course, which is the basic qualification needed to dive anywhere. I got here last Tuesday evening and was picked up by the driver for the company I've been diving with. It was a 1 - 1 1/2 hour drive I wont forget, going up to 180 kph along winding, hilly pitch black roads! The general strategy seemed to be to straddle the white lines in the middle of the road and use them as a guide, If something came around a bend ... read more

Day 201 (12.10.07) After a really uncomfortable (and in the most sleepless night) we arrived at the Semporna bus station at the unsavoury hour of 4:30 am (3 hours earlier than scheduled). We were bundled off the bus into the ghost town with only our fellow passengers and some hopeful taxi drivers for company. With a good sized group at the bus stop Mark left Chrissie with the bags and went in search of somewhere to sleep for the rest of the night. Taking a walk around town and even asking some local coppers on patrol where we could find a guesthouse that was open at this time, Mark's search was in vane, so he opted to collect Chrissie and go for a coffee at a late night street cafe as the sun started to come ... read more

Beware: This is a long, drawn-out email blast. I suggest you read it all in one sitting, if you have the time. Enjoy! 06/19/07 I asked for adventure. I got adventure. Be careful what you ask for. I thought by getting there early I would have a good chance of leaving early. Wrong! Getting there early just gave me more time to sit and wait. And wonder. Wonder if this 4WD is really going to make the crossing today or am I just waiting for nothing, wasting my day away. These thoughts occur quite a bit with me, especially in a foreign country with language barriers and no one to share my concerns with. It's all part of the adventure. And speaking of adventure.... I was in Tawau, a city in the southeastern part of Sabah, ... read more

And just as we were ready to continue our journey up to the northern part of Borneo, we had second thoughts after a great day of diving in Sipadan. Why not stay awhile? Soon as we were off the boat from a day diving we walked across the street and spoke to Uncle Chang himself at Uncle Chang’s - Mabul DIVE lodge. And guess what? We were offered work and it looks like we should be able to use both our PADI and our SSI instructor certifications as the centre has both :) We are currently in Semporna and the centre is located on Mabul, which is the closest island to Sipadan. So we are going out there tomorrow morning at 8am to join his crew! We feel really excited about the opportunity and look forward ... read more

Travel Day Asia » Malaysia » Borneo » Sabah » Semporna By Sophia C April 12th 2007 Around the WorldToday we travelled from Sandakan down to Lahud Datu then on to Semporna. Our bus was 10 seater. All locals! Was good to travel like this as we've had to catch planes a lot of the time to speed things up as we have had limited time in Borneo. So this time we saw the country side which was a little sad as it shows the effects of Logging in Borneo and how the Jungle has been replaced with Palm Trees as Palm Oil is Borneo's biggest export!... read more

The dive shop we had arranged our dives with had booked us into the Dragon Inn, which the Lonely Planet said was a cheap, basic place that was a floating village, we thought this sounded good & were fine with it. When we checked in we got chatting to an Irish guy in our dorm called Tom who warned us about the rats that patrol the premises. We removed the food from our bags, locked them with our pac safes & went out to find some food & an internet place. We stopped off at the dive shop on the way home to sort out our equipment for the following day, complete paperwork & find out what time to be ready for in the morning. We also went to the bank & discovered what a ... read more